Sarens Transports First Sections of UtARK Railway Bridge

June 2017: Sarens is pleased to be part of the
Utrecht-Amsterdam-Rhine Canal (UtARK) railway bridge project. This
new steel bridge over the Amsterdam Rijnkanaal will accommodate a
railroad track expansion to four tracks between Utrecht Central
Station and the Leidsche Rijn station.

The BAM-HSM consortium is managing the project, and Sarens'
client HSM Steel Structures is constructing and installing the new
bridge as well as jacking the old bridge. The new bridge, when
completed, will measure 172m long and 11m wide, with steel sections
weighing a total of 3.000t.

As part of the project, Sarens is transporting fabricated bridge
parts over land and by water, bringing them from construction yard
to assembly site. Sarens is also lifting parts for the complete
bridge installation.

To complete the first part of this project, Sarens performed the
load out of the center piece arch from the HSM construction yard in
Schiedam and the center piece deck from the Hollandia construction
yard in Krimpen aan den IJsell. Sarens transported these
sections along the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal, bringing them to Utrecht
and then loading in both pieces.

There were special considerations for water transport,
however. First, the maximum height during water transfer was
8,8m and the bridge parts had a height of 8m. The transport barge
needed to be ballasted at its maximum for transport and then
de-ballasted for unloading in Utrecht. An extra bridge construction
of 0,5m on the barge was necessary to get enough height for the
load out. Finally, the Sarens team had to turn all bridge parts 90
degrees during load out from the barge.

To work with a 520t load measuring 57m x 13,6m x 6,4m, Sarens
used the following equipment:

SPMTs

2 x 700t mobile crane

8 x strand jack

Custom-built lifting gantry

The operation proved fascinating for onlookers, and people
gathered to see the Sarens team in action. "Spectators were
watching all day," says project manager Willem Ditmer.